Books

The Junior Genius Guides

The Junior Genius Guides were designed to remind young readers that knowing stuff is actually supposed to be fun. In each volume, Ken plays teacher, guiding readers through his favorite subjects, from maps to mythology, planetoids to presidents. A school day crammed full of amazing facts is interrupted by recess (game ideas), art class (a craft project), lunch (a kid-friendly recipe), pop quizzes, "extra credit," and much more. You see, anyone can be a Junior Genius. It's not an IQ level. It's a state of mind.

Maphead

Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks is a love letter to the maps Ken was obsessed with as a child. He travels the world in search of his fellow mapheads: antique map collectors, atlas publishers, geocachers, Geography Bee prodigies, systematic travelers, and roadgeeks. Who are these prodigies, and can they save the world from its own geographic illiteracy before it's too late?

Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac

Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac: 8,888 Questions in 365 Days is a trivia bonanza, stuffed with oddball historical events and dozens of related quiz questions for every single day of the calendar year. At over nine thousand questions, in fact, it's the largest single collection of trivia questions ever produced in America in any form.

"In addition to being my secret best friend, Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings is also the author of . . . a compendium (offering) anywhere from two to four quizzes a day, with factoids sprinkled in between. Attempting to answer those quizzes has become a routine part of the day in our household. . . . If you don't have a copy of the book, buy it immediately." —Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

Brainiac

Brainiac is the bestselling account of Ken's "Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs," for trivia addicts and novices alike. Ken's guided tour to the trivia world takes you from behind the scenes on Jeopardy! to the pub quizzes of Boston, from the college quiz bowl circuit to the annual 54-hour trivia marathon in tiny Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

"A thoughtful and lively exploration of a subculture where knowledge actually is power—and no detail is ever too small." —Stefan Fatsis, author of Word Freak